Good Things I'll Never Do Again

Thirty-Six: The New Beginning

I drink my iced coffee with a little less enthusiasm than usual. I still can't believe I've been paying full price all this time and it just doesn't taste as good.

Sacha rolls her eyes and sips her cappuccino. "C'mon, Bev, we're past that."

"I'm not," I mutter.

"Get used to it," Iris calls from behind the counter.

I toss a glare her way and catch Sacha watching me with a motherly expression.

She hasn't stopped smiling since I told her about my new job at Percival.

"I'm just so happy for you," she says.

"Yeah, I can't wait to drive Kristen into the ground," I say.

Sacha's eyes widen.

I grin and playfully kick her under the table. "But that's not the only thing I'm excited about, don't worry."

She smiles, relieved. "Good. Now maybe you can come to our community meetings and everything since you're so social now!"

I give a nervous laugh and I'm glad when my phone beeps.

It's a text from Aimee. Well, more like a Presidential speech.

Hey Bev. I don't know what to say. These girls have not stopped talking about how wonderful you are. I have to admit, I wouldn't approve of 98% of the things that happened, but you gave my girls the one thing I wanted them to have the most. Love.

So thank you.

I know I haven't been the best sister, and whenever Jemma and Dusty aren't screaming about how many bottles of milk there are on the wall, I've been thinking. I've judged you too harshly all of these years. Because we're so similar. We're both broken. We're both trying to rebuild. And maybe neither of us have handled it quite right all this time, but now we have a new beginning.

So I'm sorry for these past years. The truth is, I've been running from my past too.

I really hope you can forgive me, Bev.

I know you were sincere about not wanting the money, but my conscience just couldn't allow me to let it go without a cent. So you might have a surprise in your mailbox by tomorrow.

And it's been mentioned about a million times that the girls want to spend the summer with you. I said you're probably tired of them by now, but still...what do you say?

Lots of love,

Aimee

I smile quietly.

"What is it?" Sacha asks.

"Nothing." I sigh happily. "You know, all of this has been amazing, but you wanna know one thing I won't miss?"

"What's that?"

"Having to share my ice cream with Dusty. There are still some good things I'll never do again. Which reminds me of this one time Ronald Cuthbert and I took a huge pineapple floatie from the public pool in the middle of the night..."

THE END